The 1981 Listening Post - David Lindley - El Rayo-X

David Lindley - El Rayo-X #135 By Jon Rosenberg April 1981 David Lindley El Rayo-X Genre: Roots rock/Reggae/Zydeco Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5 Jon’s rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Mercury Blues Bye Bye Love Quarter of a Man Twist & Shout Pay the Man David Lindley is what’s known as a “musician’s musician.” In the 70’s he was an in-demand session player who appeared on albums by Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Dolly Parton, Curtis Mayfield and many others. If you needed a guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, or just about any other string instrument on a song, you called Lindley. In 1981, he put together his own band – El Rayo-X – and recorded this eponymously titled album (with a little help from his friend Jackson Browne as producer). This was a hard one to categorize. While “El Rayo-X” has many sonic flavors to sample, the overall vibe is very rootsy Americana with some serious reggae and New Orleans influences. Like if Bob Marley got lost in Cajun country while looking for Robert Johnson at the crossroads. Maybe it was a reaction to punk or the nascent New Wave scene, but this album sounds nothing like any of that stuff. No synths, no drum machines, no studio trickery - and it’s great! There’s a wonderfully unexpected reggae cover of “Bye Bye Love,” a scorching slide-guitar jam on “Mercury Blues,” a ska-Zydeco cover of “Twist & Shout,” a fun R&B workout with “Your Old Lady,” and a bunch of other sweet ear candy. Sure, there’s nothing particularly deep here, lyrically or otherwise, but there’s no way you can listen to these tunes and not smile. This is joyful music – and who couldn’t use a little joy in their lives right now? https://open.spotify.com/album/5YBOfNA4D8hUldUGivKZd7?si=6WxMVlR2T6atO5vcsdAKJA